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Blue Spring Ride
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Io Sakisaka. It began serialization in 2011 in the shōjo manga magazine ''Bessatsu Margaret. Plot Yoshioka Futaba has a few reasons why she wants to "reset" her image & life as a new high school student. Because she's cute, she was ostracized by her female friends in junior high, and because of a misunderstanding, she couldn't get her feeling across to the one boy she has ever liked, Tanaka-kun. Now in high school, she is determined to be as unladylike as possible so that her friends won't be jealous of her. While living her life this way contentedly, she meets Tanaka-kun again, but he now goes under the name of Mabuchi Kou. He tells her that he felt the same way as she did when they were younger, but now things can never be the same again. Will Futaba be able to continue her love that never even started from three years ago? Main characters * Since middle school, Futaba has always believed that boys were simply too rough and violent for her taste. With the petite Kou as the only exception, she yearned to get to know him better and eventually shared brief, sentimental moments with him—including a plan to go to the summer festival together. Accidentally telling Naitou that she hated boys within Kou's hearing proximity, she worries about his opinion of her but convinces herself that he understands that he is special. The summer festival arrives, and Kou doesn't show up. Returning from the summer vacation, it is acknowledged that Kou had transferred to another school without a word. Futaba experiences the epiphany that she felt attraction for the boy and regrets how their relationship had become. In high school, Futaba's character has drastically taken a turn. No longer feminine or cute, she tries to make herself appear as unattractive as possible. The reason for this is that she had been outcasted in middle school by all of the girls due to favoritism from the boys. Determined to have friends in high school, she sacrifices her true, girly self for her classmates' approval. Although Futaba is strong-willed, stubborn, and passionate, she prefers to be accepted for who she isn't than ostracized for who she is. * During his time in middle school with Futaba, Kou was rather small and gentle. He became very fond of her throughout their experiences together but seemingly disappeared during a summer break. Making an appearance in Futaba's high school, it is revealed that he was unable to attend the summer festival because of familial issues. No longer "Tanaka Kou," he is now referred to as "Mabuchi Kou." His personality has also taken a turn, for he is now more masculine, sarcastic, and crude. In addition, he has extremely pessimistic views about himself and about his brother. Despite these changes, it is evident that Kou is still an overall kind person. It is unknown as to whether or not Kou has lingering feelings for Futaba. To him, Futaba seems to be a remainder of his happier days—the days before his family experiences turmoil. * Introduced in the first chapter, Yuuri's high school life is parallel to Futaba's middle school life. She is despised by many girls in her class, and she is often left alone. Yuuri gets by very well, however, for she prefers to be hated for who she truly is. * Much like Yuuri, Shuuko is another "lone wolf." Due to experiences in middle school, Shuuko fails to trust girls and favors Tanaka-sensei, Kou's older brother. * Outgoing and spontaneous, Aya seems to be the only character without social problems. He is very open, caring, and sometimes even dense. He has a crush on Shuuko.